Aston Villa, From Chicago to the Holte End of the World

Well, the wrong team wore claret and blue on Saturday—as always, it took me about fifteen minutes before I stopped getting things backward. But, after a brief bright start by Villa, as West Ham had more and more of the ball, it became clearer and clearer to me which team was mine: the one that had it, lost it, and hoofed it up the field.

Still, for all that, we looked more dangerous. They took a hell of a lot more shots, but we came closest, when Benteke’s header hit the bar so hard I could swear I heard it in Chicago. And, of Weimann’s two lightning-fast attacks in the first half—how did we not get a favorable call on either one?

Yet another game where we will rue our missed chances. Yet another game with a player lost to injury, leaving our squad looking thinner and thinner. I honestly thought that, in a battle between two teams that can’t win at home, the away team would have a good chance for three points. And yet.

375 MINUTES without a goal. Eduardo Galeano once wrote, “the goal is soccer’s orgasm”—and, if this is true, Villa fans have a serious case of blue balls. And it’s hard to pull up your big-boy pants when you’re sporting a case of size fives.

It is encouraging that even when they are on the defensive, Villa can still get goalscoring opportunities – they’ve just got to start sticking them away. . . . The point in the East End also continued Villa’s encouraging results record on their travels this season, with two wins, two draws and a defeat.